Company Update
Nov 12, 2025
5 min read

Behind the Buy: Making It Rain Rewards

At Rain, our mission has always been clear: make onchain payments as seamless and rewarding as the best financial products in the world.

When we raised our Series B earlier this year, we committed to building a one-stop platform for enterprises to launch and scale card and payment programs, including on-ramps, wallets, universally-accepted cards, off-ramps, and payouts.

Today, we’re adding the missing piece. Rain has acquired Uptop, a rewards platform that turns everyday purchases into loyalty through simple card-linking and receipt scanning. With Uptop, Rain partners will be able to launch programs that don’t just move money — they build loyalty, drive frequency, and deepen long-term value.

Rewards are the emotional layer of payments — what makes a card worth pulling out of your wallet. And now, they’re native to Rain.

Why Rewards Matter More Than Ever

In developed card markets, rewards are expected. In the U.S., for example, nearly every card offers something back, ranging from points and perks, to cash and crypto. If you’re not offering rewards, you’re not in the game.

Rain now helps partners compete at that level from day one by enabling automatic rewards globally.

That’s a big deal. Especially as stablecoin cards expand into regions where card access is still new and rewards are almost unheard of. In these markets, Rain partners will be able to offer a level of financial empowerment that feels truly differentiated: not just global access to funds, but the ability to earn on everyday spend.

Uptop has already proven that this model works. In the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Cavs Rewards program, for example, fans who linked their cards spent 21% more with team sponsors and Team Shop sales jumped by 51%. That same technology now powers Pistons Rewards, Geaux Rewards at LSU, and the Empire State Building Ambassador Program.

When people are rewarded for their everyday behavior, they engage more. Once Uptop’s platform is fully integrated into Rain’s stack, our partners will be able to tap into that same dynamic right out of the box.

Why Uptop

From the first conversation, our teams knew the fit was obvious. Uptop had built something rare: an onchain platform that felt completely off-chain to users. Cardholders link a card once, and rewards just happen. No downloads, no checkout codes, no POS integrations. Behind the scenes, the system runs on Avalanche, handling rewards with pinpoint attribution and loyalty-scale throughput.

That blend of consumer-grade UX and enterprise-grade infrastructure mirrors how Rain was built.

This isn’t a bolt-on. Uptop is a native extension of how Rain thinks about payments. Together, we’re making it possible to design card programs that drive revenue and retention, not just transactions.

What Partners Will Be Able To Do

In the coming months, Rain partners will be able to:

  • Launch branded rewards without managing third-party integrations or loyalty vendors
  • Build “wallet-in-a-box” programs that combine branded balances, payments, and loyalty in one clean user flow, much like Starbucks’ iconic stored-value model
  • Run sponsored bonus-earn campaigns that drive measurable engagement and spend
  • Access detailed data on user activation, transaction frequency, and merchant mix

This creates something powerful: a single platform for going to market fast, with compliant issuance, stablecoin infrastructure, and rewards.

Uptop will continue operating as its own brand for the foreseeable future, with its reach expanding beyond sports and entertainment into retail, travel, and dining. But the user experience will remain the same: link a card, spend where you already shop, and earn automatically.

Looking Ahead

Rain has always been about unlocking the full potential of stablecoins — making them spendable, scalable, and actually useful in the real world.

This acquisition marks another leap forward in that mission. It adds depth to the Rain stack, value to every swipe, and a new layer of engagement for our partners and their customers.

For cardholders, it means loyalty that’s effortless and global. For partners, it means launching programs that work harder and scale faster.

We’re thrilled to welcome the Uptop team into the Rain family, and we can’t wait to see what you, our partners, build with rewards at your fingertips.

If you’re building a card or wallet product and want rewards to be a native part of your user experience, we’d love to talk.

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Farooq Malik & John Timoney
CEO, Rain | Co-founder, Uptop